Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2026
Optimization of Breast Biopsy and Mastectomy Sample Collection Procedures for Biobanking, Personalized Medicine, and Research Applications
Published on: September 2, 2025
An HR-MAS MR metabolomics study on breast tissues obtained with core needle biopsy
MuLan Li1, Yonghyun Song, Nariya Cho
1Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Background:
Much research has been devoted to the development of new breast cancer diagnostic measures, including those involving high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopic techniques. Previous HR-MAS MR results have been obtained from post-surgery samples, which limits their direct clinical applicability.
Methodology/Principal Findings:
In the present study, we performed HR-MAS MR spectroscopic studies on 31 breast tissue samples (13 cancer and 18 non-cancer) obtained by percutaneous core needle biopsy. We showed that cancer and non-cancer samples can be discriminated very well with Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structure-Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) multivariate model on the MR spectra. A subsequent blind test showed 69% sensitivity and 94% specificity in the prediction of the cancer status. A spectral analysis showed that in cancer cells, taurine- and choline-containing compounds are elevated. Our approach, additionally, could predict the progesterone receptor statuses of the cancer patients.
Conclusions/Significance:
HR-MAS MR metabolomics on intact breast tissues obtained by core needle biopsy may have a potential to be used as a complement to the current diagnostic and prognostic measures for breast cancers.
